Three of New York’s most beautiful luxury hotels

New York time

You’re almost embarrassed to admit it, but you feel a little like a paparazzo. Standing on the bonsai-filled roof terrace overlooking Tiffany and Co. and Fifth Avenue, sharp left view, in the lounge bar quick right view: That’s not it. . .? In New York’s most exclusive house, you expect to run into celebrities around every corner. In no other hotel in the city can you move around as quietly as here: The “Aman New York”, which opened in August 2022, is only accessible to overnight guests ; only they and members of the private club can climb into the elevator that leads to the lobby on the 14th floor. Only the jazz club in the basement is open to everyone. It is lit in red light and it looks so elegant, as if it were a James Bond movie setting.

The listed Crown Building – built by the same architects who designed Grand Central Station – has an interesting history: it housed MoMA, the offices of Dior and the men’s magazine “Playboy”. Bare truths can only be found in the three-story spa’s saunas, where shaman Nick gets the body’s heart rate back on track during a “Sound Bath” session.

Although it is the first “Aman” in the US, the hotel remains faithful to its Asian roots: the star architect Jean-Michel Gathy was responsible for Japanese minimalism, including the house- “Nama” food. Try Chef Takuma’s menu! At the Hinoki wooden counter you can see the maestro preparing the individual courses.

Fireplaces crackle in the 83 suites, panels covered with rice paper separate the bathroom – oh, what a wonderful rain shower, like a refreshing spray. One wall is covered in painted washi wallpaper. An almost holy calm sets in as soon as you enter the upper, champagne-colored room. Only the view from the window of the famous department store Bergdorf Goodman reminds you where you are: in the middle of the city that never sleeps.

Double room inside “New York Times” available from $1950 per night.

Warren Street Hotel

Now is the time to piss yourself off. A room with its own terrace, and that in the Big Apple, where private balconies are something like a jack-of-all-trades, and almost impossible in hotels. And here: cedars in front of skyscrapers, grass and flowers with bees buzzing around them. Admittedly, not all of the 69 individually designed rooms and suites have a private outdoor space, but they do have floor-to-ceiling windows where the sunlight streams in.

The “Warren Street Hotel” is Tim and Kit Kemp’s last joke. The couple founded the Firmdale hotel group in London in 1985, and since then Kit has been providing their own design studio, designing wallpaper, textiles and tableware. The property’s sister hotel opened in New York in February “Crosby Street Hotel” in Soho and “The Whitby” in Midtown the first hotel where his daughters Minnie and Willow also worked.

The Kemp DNA has stayed true to itself in two ways. Colorful beauty including contemporary art and a mix of patterns and materials that make you ask yourself: Does it fit together? And how! In the “Drawing Room”, from which an honor bar leads off, striped Chesterfield sofas stand in front of floral wing chairs, in the restaurant a sculpture by Gareth Devonald Smith stretches across its counter, the sky-blue walls of the orangery are decorated. with porcelain by Martha Freud Colorful plates by Robina Jack show jumping zebras and dogs.

“Colours make you happy – they bring life,” says Kit Kemp and she decided to have the steel facade of the new building painted bright blue. The loft-like design and carpets of the “Warren Street Hotel” pay homage to the textile factories that once existed in the Tribeca area.

Double room inside “Warren Street Hotel” Yes Available from $925 per night.

Fifth Avenue Hotel

The first impression: you must be uncertain! But no. The Ohebshalom family’s Golden Age building sat empty for half a century, serving only as a storage room. In the heart of Manhattan, on the corner of 28th Street and Fifth Avenue, a stone’s throw from the Empire State Building. Until his son Alex, a traveler with all his heart and soul, decided: Let’s make it a hotel! Something New York doesn’t have yet. He previewed and commissioned the Swede who is now considered the IT designer of the hotel industry: Martin Brudnizki. That was twelve years ago, mind you. Because so much time and entertainment went into the “Fifth Avenue Hotel” until it opened with a new glass tower at the end of 2023.

A cabinet of curiosities that resembles a good friend’s eclectic home. After all, the accommodation was originally a private house from the late 18th century. Society wife Charlotte Goodride threw dinner parties here before Penn Station architects converted it into a bank in 1907.

The smell of grilled salmon with ginger-carrot sauce wafts up to the balconies through the old counter hall, which is now home to the fine dining restaurant “Café Carmellini”. Sound designers were hired to take care of the high-ceilinged space’s acoustics. However, only one person compiles the playlist: the renowned chef Andrew Carmellini. To accompany the French and Italian dishes, he serves soul music from DJ King Tutt from the Bronx. Although the strollers from Paris at the turn of the century were the design inspiration, a flea market is found in the Chinese cabinets, and a butler greets guests with a welcome drink, a modern touch runs through the house. gives the “Fifth place. Avenue Hotel” timeless.

Artworks by new artists and fearless use of color also contribute to this: pink hallways here, pistachio-colored walls there. Brudnizki’s imaginative signature is unmistakable, visible in the fringe cushions on the brocade sofas, the tasseled lamps with horse heads, the wallpaper with palm trees and flames, the mint-colored marble in the bathroom, the star shaped lights above the bed. Everything made especially for the hotel. Style icon Diana Vreeland once said: “The eye must travel!” So finish the visual journey in the “Portrait Bar”, which is decorated like a library with wood paneling and pictures. The drinks are inspired by cocktails from around the world. Walking for advanced people!

Double room inside “Fifth Avenue Hotel” available from $895 per night.

This article is part of the NZZaS publication extension “travel” show up.